ON&BOARD Leads Pre-Seed Round Investment in Qureka Inc., Operator of "Bookleverage" Which Transforms Book Knowledge into Business with Generative AI
ON&BOARD Inc. has executed a lead investment in the pre-seed round for Qureka Inc., which operates "Bookleverage," a book Q&A service utilizing generative AI. This initiative aims to provide a highly efficient environment for busy business professionals to leverage book knowledge and contribute to the development of the publishing industry.
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- 📰 Published: April 28, 2026 at 19:10
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ON&BOARD Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Directors: Masato Shimohira, Kosuke Nakayama; hereinafter "ON&BOARD") announces that it has made a lead investment in the pre-seed round of Qureka Inc. (Headquarters: Nakano-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Yuta Madate; hereinafter "Qureka"), which operates the book Q&A service "Bookleverage."
Qureka is a startup that develops and operates "Bookleverage," a service that utilizes generative AI to allow users to ask questions and engage in natural language conversations with book content. The company officially released Bookleverage on April 24th, launching a service for businesses that combines the utilization of book data based on copyright license agreements with publishers and generative AI.
Bookleverage significantly compresses the processes of reading, researching, and thinking, from summarizing entire books to extracting key points and proposing applications tailored to users' business challenges. It provides an environment where busy business professionals can instantly access knowledge from books, and features a sustainable business design that incorporates a revenue-sharing model for publishers and authors.
ON&BOARD highly evaluated the company's growth potential from the following perspectives and executed the investment:
Redefining Accessibility to Knowledge: It is a challenge that directly addresses the issue of knowledge acquisition from books, which many business professionals face in an era of exploding information.
Balancing Rights Protection and Revenue Sharing: It is an industry-coexistence business model that combines a design for rights holders' protection, such as not using book data for AI model training and limiting full-text output, with a revenue-sharing model for publishers.
Founding Team's Business Development Capability: The founding team consists of individuals with experience in new business development and service planning from former NTT Docomo, possessing strong execution capabilities in expanding to large corporations and negotiating partnerships with publishers.
While generative AI has the potential to fundamentally change knowledge accessibility, Qureka connects its benefits to "books," the most reliable content asset.
The systematic knowledge accumulated in books has a depth and reliability that cannot be replaced by social media or search engines. Qureka's approach, which transforms this value into a form that can be immediately utilized in business settings, is a model that can contribute to the sustainable development of the publishing industry and could be the starting point for industrial transformation beyond mere technology utilization.
Qureka is also participating in "Out Of BOUNDS," a startup support program operated by ON&BOARD, and ON&BOARD will focus on providing hands-on support for its business growth.
For more details, please see below:
Qureka Press Release:
https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000010.000165907.html
Nikkei Shimbun article dated April 24, 2026:
https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC227KM0S6A420C2000000/
■ About the Investment
Shunsuke Hasegawa, Partner, ON&BOARD Inc.
Qureka's service, which fuses "books" and "generative AI," is a new initiative looking ahead to the future generative AI era, and can be called a grand challenge to update human knowledge. Through its investment in Qureka, ON&BOARD will fully support the company's growth so that this challenge can evolve beyond mere technology utilization and become the starting point for an industrial transformation.
▪️ About Qureka
A startup founded by experienced new business development and service planning professionals from NTT Docomo, with a mission to "nurture curiosity worldwide and deliver 'heart-pounding' discoveries to life and society."
Location: 2F Nakano Central Park South, 4-10-2 Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo
Representative: Yuta Madate, Representative Director/CEO
Established: May 27, 2025
Business Description: Planning, development, and operation of a book knowledge Q&A service utilizing generative AI.
URL: https://www.qureka.jp/
■ About ON&BOARD
A venture capital firm that primarily invests in seed and early-stage companies. With a mission to "Unlock Talent Across the world," it aims for lead investments and social implementation in a wide range of areas, from AI agents, medical devices, robotics, and dual-use technologies to nuclear fusion.
It has a wide range of experts and advisors, including strategy consultants, trading company professionals, AI engineers, researchers, lawyers, and experienced M&A professionals, who support startups from their founding stage.
Qureka is a startup that develops and operates "Bookleverage," a service that utilizes generative AI to allow users to ask questions and engage in natural language conversations with book content. The company officially released Bookleverage on April 24th, launching a service for businesses that combines the utilization of book data based on copyright license agreements with publishers and generative AI.
Bookleverage significantly compresses the processes of reading, researching, and thinking, from summarizing entire books to extracting key points and proposing applications tailored to users' business challenges. It provides an environment where busy business professionals can instantly access knowledge from books, and features a sustainable business design that incorporates a revenue-sharing model for publishers and authors.
ON&BOARD highly evaluated the company's growth potential from the following perspectives and executed the investment:
Redefining Accessibility to Knowledge: It is a challenge that directly addresses the issue of knowledge acquisition from books, which many business professionals face in an era of exploding information.
Balancing Rights Protection and Revenue Sharing: It is an industry-coexistence business model that combines a design for rights holders' protection, such as not using book data for AI model training and limiting full-text output, with a revenue-sharing model for publishers.
Founding Team's Business Development Capability: The founding team consists of individuals with experience in new business development and service planning from former NTT Docomo, possessing strong execution capabilities in expanding to large corporations and negotiating partnerships with publishers.
While generative AI has the potential to fundamentally change knowledge accessibility, Qureka connects its benefits to "books," the most reliable content asset.
The systematic knowledge accumulated in books has a depth and reliability that cannot be replaced by social media or search engines. Qureka's approach, which transforms this value into a form that can be immediately utilized in business settings, is a model that can contribute to the sustainable development of the publishing industry and could be the starting point for industrial transformation beyond mere technology utilization.
Qureka is also participating in "Out Of BOUNDS," a startup support program operated by ON&BOARD, and ON&BOARD will focus on providing hands-on support for its business growth.
For more details, please see below:
Qureka Press Release:
https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000010.000165907.html
Nikkei Shimbun article dated April 24, 2026:
https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC227KM0S6A420C2000000/
■ About the Investment
Shunsuke Hasegawa, Partner, ON&BOARD Inc.
Qureka's service, which fuses "books" and "generative AI," is a new initiative looking ahead to the future generative AI era, and can be called a grand challenge to update human knowledge. Through its investment in Qureka, ON&BOARD will fully support the company's growth so that this challenge can evolve beyond mere technology utilization and become the starting point for an industrial transformation.
▪️ About Qureka
A startup founded by experienced new business development and service planning professionals from NTT Docomo, with a mission to "nurture curiosity worldwide and deliver 'heart-pounding' discoveries to life and society."
Location: 2F Nakano Central Park South, 4-10-2 Nakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo
Representative: Yuta Madate, Representative Director/CEO
Established: May 27, 2025
Business Description: Planning, development, and operation of a book knowledge Q&A service utilizing generative AI.
URL: https://www.qureka.jp/
■ About ON&BOARD
A venture capital firm that primarily invests in seed and early-stage companies. With a mission to "Unlock Talent Across the world," it aims for lead investments and social implementation in a wide range of areas, from AI agents, medical devices, robotics, and dual-use technologies to nuclear fusion.
It has a wide range of experts and advisors, including strategy consultants, trading company professionals, AI engineers, researchers, lawyers, and experienced M&A professionals, who support startups from their founding stage.